The Boy & The Bear - Coffee Roastery — Restaurant in Pasadena

(Context: came on a Sunday about 30 minutes before closing time) Starting with the positive, their coffee is good. They specialize in Colombian coffee and have a variety of beans at their store, including a regular blend, an espresso blend, decaf, and small producer beans. Their beans also come in nice packaging (a clear, reclosable bag within a nice box).

They had no prices on the beans, so you have to go online (or ask the counter people) for price information. Their beans are $20-35 per bag. While most of the bags are 12 oz., some are 10 oz., but this is only reflected online since their boxes don't have weight information on them.

They don't serve drip coffee after 12 PM, but they close at 4 PM. All of their prices are tax included, so that's nice. Drink prices are reasonable. Espresso is $3.75 and comes with a glass of sparkling water if you drink at the store. Americano is $4 and doesn't come with sparkling water (which may be typical) and comes in a 5(?) oz. cup. (I didn't note the other beverages' prices or quantities). I got an americano and it was good, but there were grounds in the cup, so I think there might have been an issue with the extraction or tamping.

Their store is relatively small but has a lot of seating by windows, so it's a fairly naturally lit space. There were two baristas and they were professional and fast, but didn't feel very friendly (which might be fine for...

I’ve worked in the restaurant service industry for 10+ years and If I could give this place ZERO STARS I would. The manager at the green street location was extremely rude and dismissive. You are much better off going to Tartine, Republik, or even Starbucks for that matter if you are looking for coffee in Pasadena.

The only coffee I’ll ever order is a cortado and I order one all around the world. Not only are they extremely inconsistent in terms of milk texture I recently was refused the simple request to add honey to my cortado. The lady said it would ruin the intended flavors of the coffee… I’m never one to complain but this was the straw that broke the camels back

Even though there is offered “sweetener/modifiers” on the menu I was told no modifications or sweeteners for macchiato or cortados lol I never would’ve guessed people could be so pretentious when it comes to a simple coffee

Such a shame and I highly recommend spending your hard earned...

Never thought of googling the reviews for this place because I come here too often. I am surprised it only has 4.2 stars. I live closeby and this is my to go place in Pasadena for 'doing some work at a nice coffee shop', which by definition, needs to satisfy the following conditions: 1) it needs to have big enough tables that fit at least a coffee mug/cup, a pastry plate, a laptop, a notebook and a little bit of space for mousing; 2) with charging outlets; 3) stable decent wifi; 4) Non-intruding background music (there are a couple of other coffee shops in Pasadena that i really like too, but i wouldn't go over the weekend simply bc their live music is too much, though the intention is good); 5) great coffee. I have my own coffee shop map dedicated to high quality coffee shops around the world, and i think B&B is definitely at the top for the category - 'doing some work at a nice...